


Operation: Zmey Gorynych

by AlphaHydrii



Category: Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Genre: NaNoWriMo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-16 15:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaHydrii/pseuds/AlphaHydrii
Summary: Dan has gone back to Vestroia to save the day. Marucho and Shun have disappeared. Are Alice, Runo and Julie going to sit still and hope they all come back safely? Hell no!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my NaNoWriMo 2019 Project! This year, I'm doing something a little different, and uploading it as I go to AO3! Which means, amongst other things, you get to read my breakdown in real time!! Also as much as I'm gonna attempt to keep it together, it's probably going to devolve into absolute madness at some point. 
> 
> Do hold on, and remember to keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times.

There was a banging at the door. Alice’s eyes creaked open. More banging. Someone was really, really insistent about coming in at… What time even was it? Sleep time, her body said. Go back to sleep. The racket at the door was too loud, though, to merely roll over. And besides, someone clearly needed something. 

She staggered to the door, fumbling with the chain and then the thumb turn. The door wobbled open, and on the other side, Runo, looking about as haggard and tired as Alice felt, but with a certain nervous energy vibrating out from her. 

She lunged through the doorway, grabbing Alice by the shoulders. Her eyes were ablaze.

“Dan’s gone back to Vestroia”

Alice had sat Runo down, although it still seemed likely that she was going to vibrate herself into a different dimension as she waited for Alice to finish making her sugary, blacker-than-black coffee so that she could concentrate at whatever god forsaken hour it was (she daren’t look at a clock) on whatever poorly-thought-out thing Dan Kuso had done now. Clearly it was bad: Runo had flown all the way from Wardington City to Russia, and that wasn’t a trivial flight. She had to say, as she poured the hot water into her mug, she was surprised that Runo hadn’t come along with Marucho - his private jet would have really expedited the process. 

She took a sip of her drink, and sat down on the seat opposite Runo’s.

“What’s happened? Start from the top.”

Runo took a breath, and began her story. It seemed that whilst she and Julie had been visiting Dan and Marucho, a portal had opened, and Drago had appeared. Apparently they’d all been set to go together, but then Dan tricked them into missing their opportunity to do so. She didn’t say how, but the look on Runo’s face suggested that whatever had happened, she and Julie should have been cleverer than that. 

Alice drained the last drops of sweet liquid from her mug. It didn’t help that much - now she just felt simultaneously too tired to be awake, but too awake to go back to bed. Gross. 

“Why didn’t Julie come with you?” 

Runo’s mouth drew out into a grim line: “She said she wanted to go get Billy to help us. I said we didn’t need him. We split up at the airport.” 

“And Marucho?”

“He disappeared.” 

“With Dan?”

“I… I don’t know.” 

Alice felt something cold and tight grip her heart. He’d vanished. Maybe with Dan, to Vestroia. _Hopefully_ with Dan to Vestroia. But he could just as easily be lost somewhere between dimensions… Like Grandfather had almost been…

She raked her fingers through her hair. Of course, she wanted nothing more than to charge off looking for the lost Brawlers, but her last active brain cell was telling her that they really needed a plan first. Reinforcements. And before even that, bed. She really, really needed to go back to bed. And Runo looked just as bad - there was no way she’d slept at all on the way. She didn’t even have any luggage. 

“Look… Drago will protect Dan - and Marucho too, I bet,”

Runo looked like she was about to argue,

“And we’re no good to them like this. Neither of us can concentrate.”

The Haos brawler nodded dumbly, as if this was only just dawning on her. 

“I _am_ exhausted...” she said, almost to herself. 

“You can borrow some pyjamas, and we’ll talk about this in the morning.” 

“… Thank you, Alice.” Runo went in for a hug, and Alice let her. The way she was shaking, with her chin hooked over Alice’s shoulder, it seemed like she needed it. They parted, eventually, and Alice fell into her bed. 

When she woke, the house was quiet. Runo was still asleep, she guessed. She couldn’t blame her - the Dan-stress and the travel-stress must be exhausting. She’d have breakfast, and then go see how she was doing. 

The bang came halfway through Alice’s bowl of porridge. It shattered on the floor, but Alice was already halfway to the door by the time it registered. It didn’t matter. The living room was full of smoke. Alice burst into the lab, smashing the door into the wall, just in time to see the back of Runo’s foot as she vanished through the Dimensional Transporter. And just in time for the glassy surface to burst into a million shining shards. 

“RUNO!!” 

Alice had trailed back through the smoke-filled lounge. Opened the window to release it, numbly. She sat in the kitchen for a long while, before she realised there was cold porridge all over the floor, and she had to clean it up. Alice did this too, automatically. 

She should have known Runo would try that. She should have locked her into the room. She should have… She should have done something. _Something!_

She had to follow her. 

That was it. That was what she had to do. Runo couldn’t have broken the transporter that badly, right? Even with all the smoke and the shattering… And… Maybe she’d have to find a different way. She'd definitely have to find a different way. 

There was a different way. If she went through his things. She hadn’t since he… Since the Doom Dimension. Part of her still didn’t want to. But… This was for Runo. She had to. She had to. 

Anxiety crawled in the pit of Alice’ s stomach as she descended into the basement. Although she’d never personally been down there, her body still knew the way - where each step was, even in the pitch black. Where to find the catch that hid the door. 

“Aaah!” 

Alice fell back, smashing her back painfully on the steps. A face grinned at her from behind the door. Just a mask. Just a mask. The little basement was full of them. He’d always liked those. She found them terrifying. Knowing these were under her house… Sometimes she worried she’d wake up one day to find that they’d migrated upstairs. 

She shook herself off. She was here for a reason, and the sooner she got what she’d come for, the sooner she could return to the sensibly lit, sensibly decorated upstairs. Her hand snaked tentatively up the wall, until she found the light switch. A dim blue light filled the room, spilling from the grinning mouths and the watching eyes. Alice almost wanted to run all the way back up the stairs and lock herself into her room. After she had gotten what she wanted. After. 

She crept across the room, towards the little desk with the little computer sitting on it, a thin layer of dust sitting across the surface. Alice’s fingers slipped along the edge, until she found the tiny seam that betrayed the hidden drawer. Inside, what she had come for, and what she had hoped would have vanished with Naga’s death: Two sets of cards: one blank, except for delicate grooves inscribed along its surface, and the other with the snarling face of a white dragon depicted on it. She grabbed the blank card, and then, after several moments of hesitation, the snarling dragon card too. She… It probably wasn’t safe to keep it here, if she wasn’t going to be. 

Alice closed the door gently - almost reverently - and then raced up the steps nearly on all fours, realising what she’d done only when she was at the top and panting. It was okay. She didn’t have to go down there anymore. Not ever. Maybe she could get someone to brick the doorway up, too. Maybe she’d learn to do it herself, after Dan and Runo and Marucho were all back home and safe. Maybe. But first:

“I need to find Julie,” She whispered it into the blank card, eyes closed, and when she opened them again, she found herself sitting on the steps of an entirely different house, in an entirely different country. Alice couldn’t help but let a little smile grace her face. It had worked! The DT Card still worked! She ignored what that meant about the other cards, still sitting heavy in her pocket. 

She stood. She rapped on the door. She heard the clatter of steps behind it. Multiple sets of footsteps. 

An older woman’s face popped out, followed by a much younger. Both their faces split into grins as they processed who at was at the door, and they said, almost in tandem: “Alice!” 

Julie caught Alice in a tight hug - even more suffocating than the one Runo gave her, somehow. Like Alice was going to vanish if she wasn’t held tightly enough.

“Julie… You’re… Hurting me”

“Oh! Sorry!!” Julie released her hug, pinging back onto the doorstep. Her cheerful demeanour faded as she caught sight of Alice’s expression. 

“Did Runo come to see you?” It wasn’t really a question - Julie knew. Alice nodded. “Did she…?” Alice nodded again, and Julie’s face clouded over. She didn’t need to be told - She knew what Runo was like, and what was at Alice’s house. 

“We’re going after her, right?” 

“Yeah,” Alice nodded, more confident than she felt, “I don’t know if I can get us there though, Runo broke Grandfather’s machine…”

Julie frowned - not an expression she was known for, and so her face looked strange whilst she did it. “Then how did you get here? You can’t have flown, it’s only…” She went to check the time, realised she wasn’t wearing her Bakupod, and trailed off. 

“I’ve got this, but…” Alice held up the DT Card, “I don’t know if it’ll take us to an entirely new dimension.” Possibly even another planet - what Drago merging with the cores of Vestroia had done was… Strange. 

“Masquerade used it to get to the Doom Dimension didn’t he? How is this any different?” Julie winced as Alice flinched at the name. She knew Alice didn’t like to think about it but dancing around the point would just take up precious time. 

Alice’s eyes wandered off Julie’s face, “He did, but Vestroia was merging with Earth back then… I don’t know if it’ll work like that now.”

“We can try though, right?” 

Alice nodded. That was true. They could try. 

“Did you manage to get Billy?” Alice said, and then wished she hadn’t, because Julie’s face withdrew immediately. Now she was the one avoiding eye contact, suddenly finding the doorframe extremely interesting. 

“He won’t answer my messages.” 

“Oh… Julie…” 

Billy had moved away, Alice knew. She knew it had affected Julie, but to see it in person… It was hard for her. It was something Alice had long gotten used to, living so far away from the rest of her friends, but it was hard. Especially when you got used to just being able to see people. It sucked. 

Time to change tactics.

“I think we should go tell Shun,” Alice flipped the card in her hand almost idly, “Do you want to come?”

Julie nodded, and took Alice’s hand. 

“I’m going out with Alice, I’ll see you later!” 

A voice from inside the house replied, but there was already no-one to hear it. Alice and Julie appeared again thousands of miles away, this time in the pleasing garden of Shun’s grandfather. Frankly, Alice would have liked to appear at the front step and knock politely, but she’d actually never even been to Shun’s house - all she had to go off were… His foggy memories of the fight there. 

A shadow lunged at them from across the garden, and Alice - with Julie still in tow - vanished with reflexes she didn’t know she had - reappearing where she had just been standing, but now facing Shun’s grandfather. 

He was red-faced. 

“Where’s Shun?! What’s going on now?!” 

“Shun’s not here?” Julie gaped. Alice’s face twisted with concern. First Marucho, and now Shun? Surely he hadn’t been dragged to Vestroia too? Skyress couldn’t do that, could she? Maybe Dan and Drago went and picked him up but… Surely they would have all gone together, if that was the case?

“When did he disappear?”

For a moment, Alice thought Shun’s grandfather was simply going to grab them both by the collars, and toss them back over the wall, the way his entire body tensed and his teeth gritted, but all of a sudden, he relaxed. 

“He didn’t come back from training today.” 

“Did you call the police?” Julie’s grip tightened on Alice’s arm.

The elderly man nodded gravely. 

“If we see him, we’ll tell him to come home.” 

Julie looked to Alice, alarmed: “Aren’t we going to go look for him?” 

“Is there anything we can do that the police can’t?” Julie looked hurt. Alice added, quietly, “And what about Dan, and Runo, and Marucho?”

Julie looked like she was going to cry, but she stifled it. Her face was full of forced determination, “Okay,” she said, “Okay.” 

It was the evening before they got back to Alice’s house. Julie had wanted to sit down with her family, and tell them what was going on. They weren’t best pleased, and naturally wanted Julie to stay out of danger, especially when they didn’t know where Gorem was. They were going in blind, weaponless, and possibly deep into enemy lines. Alice couldn’t blame their reaction. In the end, Julie had grabbed Alice’s arm, and they had teleported away. Julie’s phone hadn’t stopped ringing after that, so she’d turned it off. 

“Are you sure? I don’t know if we’ll be able to get back any time soon.” 

Julie nodded - her false determination had apparently become quite real, some time between going to find Shun and helping Alice hook up the DT card to the guts of her Grandfather’s machine.

“I don’t even know if we’ll get there.”

Julie put her hand on top of Alice’s, on the wire-loaded card.

“It’ll be alright. I believe in you, Alice.”

Alice hit the enter key, and the giant monitors filled up with code. Something hummed. The girls felt a burning sensation running up their arms, going from warm, to hot, to burning, to searing! 

And then they were gone. And there was blackness. And before her eyes adjusted, Alice worried that she’d flung them into oblivion. But instead, it was a desert with an entirely unfamiliar sky. 

They’d made it. 

This was New Vestroia.


	2. Chapter 2

The night was cool. Not uncomfortably so, but the girls could certainly feel it on their skin. Possibly it was summer here, or perhaps this was the part of the planet closer to the sun. If it was a planet, of course: Both Alice and Julie had vague memories of a Vestroia where there was no solid surface, or sky, or even gravity. The place they were currently in - although it had to be Vestroia (if only because that’s where the computer had said it was sending them) - was almost too much like Earth. 

The differences lay in small things: the weeds neither Alice nor Julie could identify. The whispering sounds on the wind. And, as they walked, the way the barren earth blended into grassy soil, and then back again. It was almost beautiful, except there were no Bakugan. No life at all, it seemed, asides from the quiet plants. Alice looked to Julie, and saw that her apprehension was mirrored in her face. 

“Where did all the Bakugan go?” Julie’s voice seemed loud in the quiet night. Too loud. 

“Maybe… Maybe they’re all in bed?” Alice didn’t believe her own words. This was strange. Really, really strange. 

“Yeah… Maybe…” Julie scanned the horizon nervously. There was nothing there. 

They continued to walk. Quietly, mostly - occasionally one of them would pipe up about something, but it was hard to come up with topics that meant anything after a while. Neither of them really wanted to bring up Dan. Or Marucho. Or Runo. Or even Shun. It was almost like speaking their fears would somehow bring them to pass. 

Eventually, eventually the flat horizon had a shape. A shape that didn’t come towards them quickly: it hovered on the horizon like a spectre, until eventually, eventually, it resolved itself into a steeply-walled structure. The ground around it was ruffled, as if the thing had dug itself into the ground. Ridiculous, of course. That’s not how buildings worked. It was odd, but they hadn’t seen anything else that was anything even close to a lead, so Alice and Julie took a deep breath apiece, and headed towards the structure. 

The gates of the structure reared up like open jaws, and inside the girls could see a bustling city, full of… Well, they looked like people? Unless the Bakugan had evolved very rapidly into much smaller creatures, it couldn’t be them, surely? They almost looked like humans - although there was something about them that was slightly off. Neither Alice nor Julie could quite place it. There was just… Something about them. 

In any case, no-one took too much notice as the girls crossed the threshold. A few people stared at the children coming in from apparently nowhere, but no-one shouted. No one came over. They just went about their business. 

“What now?” Julie whispered into Alice’s ear.

“I…” Alice cast around. It seemed like they were on some sort of main street. Were those shops lining it? It was hard to tell, since every sign was written in unintelligible squiggles. Writing of some sort, obviously, but nothing Alice could read, “I’m not sure.”

Frankly, Alice had been hoping Runo would be waiting for them somewhere. Perhaps it was stupid - Runo was so anxious to find Dan that she left before Alice could stop her - but Alice had been hoping nevertheless. And now that her hope had been dashed, she just wasn’t sure what exactly to do. Get their bearings, she supposed. She took Julie’s hand (apparently to the other girl’s surprise) and they plunged into the crowds together. 

  


The city was built in rings. The lowermost ring, where Alice and Julie started, seemed to have mostly shops. As far as they could see, they sold almost everything: clothes in styles they didn’t recognise, books and magazines they couldn’t read, and racks of technology that was completely foreign to the earthlings. Julie had to physically restrain Alice from half of the shops, otherwise she would have blown their cover by asking what everything on every shelf was. 

The next ring seemed to be places to eat. Very few dishes were things the girls recognised, but not all of them looked disgusting, either. Of course that said, they had no money that would be accepted here. They had no idea what kind of money they even used here! 

Up and up was just housing, but here and there there were manicured lawns and perfectly positioned benches. One could see the whole city from up here, sprawling downwards and crawling with tiny figures, just going about their days. Alice and Julie stayed to watch for quite some time. There was something fascinating about watching it all. Something soothing to do something so normal, whilst they were stuck in this new world with no idea what they were doing, what they were going to do. 

They watched long enough that the little figures even spilled out into the centre expanse of the city. Little figures, accompanied all of a sudden by much larger figures. 

Alice looked to Julie. Julie looked to Alice. They’d seen correctly. 

“The Bakugan!” 

By the time they got all the way down to ground level, the match was over, and all sorts of people were spilling out all over. They said - amazingly, in a language that both Alice and Julie could understand - things like ‘Wasn’t that a great match?” and ‘The Vexos are unbeatable!’. They talked about things that were alien to the girls, but followed the same general pattern as an excited crowd anywhere in the universe. It was easy to slip back up the stairs at the tail-end of the crowd. A few other people were anyway - they’d forgotten things in the stands, or they just wanted a picture whilst it was empty. Nothing unusual. And not enough people to stop Alice jumping the barrier - regretting the jump when it turned out to be much higher than she’d assumed - and then landing with grace that Alice had no idea she had. 

Down on the battlefield, which had been scuffed badly by creatures she would have assumed impossibly large if not for the events of the previous year, there were doors set every so often along the wall. They were glass, and apparently lead onto empty white corridors, furnished sparsely with tasteful plants and abstract art. Alice approached a set, and they slid back smoothly. 

“You’re not actually going in there, are you?” 

Julie’s voice stopped Alice in her tracks. 

“What else can we do?” Alice half-turned; shrugged, “This is our only lead.” 

Julie looked conflicted. They were trespassing in a world they didn’t know. In a place they had no real idea the function of. There could be all sorts of dangers lurking inside. They could get in real trouble. 

But… Alice did have a point. This place was all they had on the Bakugan. All they had on the rest of the Brawlers. This… This was it. She took a breath. 

She followed Alice in, along the featureless corridor. It reminded her of a hospital, the way it was so… Sterile. It wasn’t what she had expected from a stadium. She supposed the aliens who built it had very different sensibilities to a human. She supposed it made sense. It still left her with a creeping chill scraping up her spine, though. Or maybe that was the trespassing…

Alice suddenly opened a door, and shot into it. Her face reappeared after a few moments. She was waving at Julie, beckoning her in. Julie needed no second bidding. She had no idea what Alice had heard or found or whatever, but she trusted her intuition. After that whole Masquerade mess, she’d know how mysterious bad guys worked, she was sure. And there had to be a mysterious bad guy around somewhere, right? Or else why would Dan have left them?

In the darkness of the room, something was thrust into Julie’s hands. 

“Put it on.” Alice whispered, between wrestling with material. The same as whatever she had been handed, Julie supposed. 

It was quite hard to get dressed in the dark, and even more so when she had no idea what she was putting on. At first she put her arms into the arm holes, but something dangled too-long against the backs of her legs. So then she put her legs into the leg-holes, but then the arm-holes vanished in the dark. But eventually - and with some help from Alice, who had apparently managed slightly better than Julie had - both girls emerged from the cupboard in cleaning jumpsuits, armed with mops and buckets, and with caps bearing some company logo on their fronts pulled over their faces. 

They shuffled down the corridor, feeling a little more confident now. They passed the ends of several other corridors, and though neither of them noticed, the floor sloped gently downwards, taking them slowly but surely underground. The footsteps of another person echoed towards them. Julie’s heart beat harder - hard enough that she swore she could hear it echoing off the walls. She fought to keep a casual pace.

The person appeared - a man with short-cropped blond hair, and blue eyes that seemed to have no defined pupils. He nodded at the girls without really looking at them, and Alice nodded back. Julie nodded too, when her frozen mind caught up with the situation. It was fine. It was fine! They’d made it! Admittedly, only past one guy, but it felt like a victory nevertheless. 

The next set of aliens passed - a pair of them this time, one dressed in a white coat and glasses, and the other not. They talked as they walked down the hall, stopping only to glare at Alice and Julie as they were forced to walk in single file. Julie listened as they vanished: 

“…the data from that one? It was even more powerful than the last! Those things are amazing!!” 

Alice looked back at Julie, a fiery look in her eyes. They were onto something! This was it. It had to be! 

They continued down their corridor, turning only when they had to. Julie tried to remember the way they came, but as they walked, it became harder and harder to do so. It was going to be okay. Alice seemed to know where she was going, and there had to be another exit right? Right? Julie tightened her grip on her mop. She hoped so. 

The corridor opened out very suddenly. They were in the back of a large room with several rows of desks and a glass window in the opposite end, showing… Something. From where they stood, it was too dark to see. Without exchanging a word, Alice and Julie crossed to the window. Through it was…

Was…

“That’s a Bakugan!” Alice hissed, losing all sense of subtlety at the sight of the limp creature. It was… Probably alive. Julie swore she could see it breathing. It wasn’t a species either girl had seen before - some sort of reptile with large shield-like growths on each shoulder. Each arm was stretched out tight, secured with some sort of electrical device. If it hurt, the lightning crackling up and down its body, it didn’t show it. 

“That’s horrible…” The words slipped out before Julie really registered them. She touched the glass, gently, as if it might shatter if she was too rough with it. As if anything might happen if she did anything. It had seemed so nice here, but underneath… Underneath was…

“Enjoying the view?” 

A voice came from behind. A voice that was not Alice. 

The mop came free from Julie’s hand, and the clatter of it on the ground was painfully loud. There was a man in the doorway. A man with spiked blond hair and a mask. Julie’s breath hitched in her throat. Was that? It couldn’t be. Alice was right there, and besides, that person looked nothing like the masked blond Julie still had nightmares about (nightmares she refused to tell anyone about). But still. He had the aura. The blood-chilling air of someone who did not at all care if he hurt you. 

Indeed, the man pulled some sort of device from his long red coat, and the window behind them lit up. The sharp crack of electricity, accompanied by the scream of the Bakugan, rushed through Julie’s body in a wave of horrible heat. What was he doing? What was he doing??

Alice was pale. Paler than Julie had ever seen her before, and her hands shook more and more as the stranger advanced. 

“Alice, it’s okay,” Julie was scared too, but not too scared to reassure her friend. A mistake. 

“Alice. Is that your name?” The man purred, closer now. Alice dropped her bucket, and water splashed Julie’s feet. 

“Alice, look at me.” Alice was frozen. Could she even hear Julie? 

“Alice!” Julie turned to her friend, pointedly showing her back to the masked man. She moved. Alice started, but too slow. The masked man lunged. Julie grabbed the card in Alice’s pocket, and wished for the surface. Everything went white. 

Spectra’s gloved hand whistled through the air, and touched cool glass.

Alice remained frozen, even in the warm daylight air. Julie backed off. Grabbing Alice’s teleporting device had been necessary, but she’d also lunged at someone who clearly wasn’t having a good time. 

“It’s okay Alice, he’s gone.” Her voice was gentle again, no longer lent volume by fear, “He’s gone, you’re okay.” 

Alice looked at Julie. Locked eyes. Her face was still pale, and her eyes still shone with tears, but the shaking was better. She wasn’t stuck in a reality where it was just her and the object of her terror anymore.

“Yeah I… Thank you… Julie…” She fell to her knees. She felt as if all her limbs had suddenly been deboned. Vaguely, she felt that she was being stupid. That person, who they didn’t even know, wasn’t worth this reaction. Even if he had… Even if he had hurt that poor Bakugan. But that mask… The hair… It was too similar. Too close. She thought… She thought she’d gotten over this. Somewhere in the year since they slew Naga, the nightmares had stopped. She’d thought she’d gotten better but… Clearly not. 

A siren broke her from her thoughts. She looked up. There in the sky, her own face stared back. That… That couldn’t be good. Julie looked panicked. 

“Alice, you’ve got to get us out of here.” 

Julie was right. She was right. Alice struggled to her feet, wrestled her hands into functioning. She visualised the outside of the city, and waited for the DT card to transport them. And…

Nothing happened. 

Julie ran. Alice, by virtue of having her hand held, ran too. There were already voices behind them. Faster, faster. Alice’s legs worked on their own. She stumbled. Julie went down too. They scrambled upright. Alice hoped that the coppery taste in her mouth was just her imagination. People in uniforms flooded out of every nook and cranny. One of them grabbed Alice’s dress. The strap came loose with a tearing sound. Alice hoped that was just her imagination, too. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she wondered vaguely if Julie could hear it. They skidded to a halt in front of the gates. So close to freedom, and yet, they were surrounded. 

Julie squared up for a fight. Alice just tried to stand straight. There was a scream, and a familiar voice said: 

“Hey! Need a hand?” 

Alice turned. 

“Runo?”

It really was - standing atop a white dinosaur bakugan was the familiar blue-haired brawler. The uniformed aliens were in disarray - apparently they hadn’t expected to be attacked by a bakugan in their own city. The dinosaur offered a hand to Julie and Alice. They needed no second bidding. Soon, they were up on the bakugan’s shoulder with Runo, watching the city get smaller in the distance as they fled. 

“I… I can’t believe it,” Alice started, “How did you find us?”

“Ah, well,” Runo grinned, “That alarm you set off was really loud.” 

She produced a box with a speaker from somewhere. It was shouting about ‘two trespassers’ and giving surprisingly thorough descriptions of both Alice and Julie.

“Plus I swiped this when I was there last.” 

Alice couldn’t help but laugh. Loudly. Here they were, trying to find Runo - save her from her own poorly-thought through decisions, and here she was, with a bakugan of her own already, and saving them! Ridiculous! Tears rolled down her face. It was a relief. She was vaguely aware that the others were staring, but she couldn’t summon the will to care. It was just so good, to be out of danger. To be here with friends. To have found Runo. That was one more friend where she could keep an eye on them. 

The whole world pitched forward. The three girls plummeted towards the ground, and for a moment, Alice accepted that she was going to die. But then the giant white hands appeared, and Runo’s bakugan friend set them gently on the ground. Turned to face the threat. 

And it _was _a threat. 

Some of the uniformed aliens had followed them. They were accompanied by some Bakugan. A red bird that Alice recognised: Falconeer, and a butterfly-looking bakugan that she didn’t.

“Runo…” 

“Don’t worry! I got this!” Runo threw something small and white. It clattered on the floor, and opened up into a beautiful haze of white light.

“Saurus and Ravenoid are really strong!”

The four bakugan met. Saurus swung at the butterfly, and the two bird bakugan spiralled up into the sky, screeching. Runo watched with satisfaction. Alice and Julie stared. Where were the gate cards? Where was… Where was anything? As far as they could see, this was nothing but an all-out brawl. 

Runo stretched out an arm, and for the first time Alice noticed the device. It was oblong, and Runo pulled a handle at the back, revealing it to be mostly tray. The question burned on Alice’s lips, but Runo said nothing. She flicked a card from her holster to her hand. 

“Ability activate!” 

She set it in the tray, and clicked it shut. It glowed. 

“Haos Impact!” 

Both Saurus and Ravenoid glowed too. And they got faster. Faster than their opponents. Saurus landed a punch, and the butterfly-looking bakugan crumpled like paper. Ravenoid grabbed its opponent, and they both went crashing to the ground. But, when the dust cleared, only it was standing. The two uniformed aliens looked at each other for a beat. Then turned and ran. Ravenoid and Saurus returned to their ball forms, and Runo caught them effortlessly as they returned to her. 

“Told you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Alice, Julie and Runo walked a long way. Even before they got where they were going, the muscles in Alice’s legs ached like they were going to snap any time soon. But the others weren’t complaining, so Alice didn’t say anything. Eventually, her feet went numb, and that was the end of that. 

But they couldn’t go on forever. The day wore into night, and the little group stopped. Nowhere in particular - they just stopped. When everywhere was as barren as everywhere else, and when the temperature was mild enough that shelter wasn’t really necessary. Although Alice would have liked to be able to hide from anyone still looking for them. She had to doubt anyone still was, but… Still. She couldn’t help but feel watched. Exposed. 

“Who’s on first watch?” 

It was Julie. Runo and Alice lay on the ground, and tried to sleep. By the time it was Alice’s turn to keep watch, she felt practically no different, except one side of her body was colder than the other. Nothing happened during her watch. It simply gave her ample time to think about the events of the day. What they still had to do. She resolved to ask Runo how she’d found Saurus and Ravenoid when they were going again. If nothing else, it would distract from the hunger that was beginning to gnaw at her gut. Perhaps Runo knew something about that, too - surely she’d eaten something during the day she’d been running around trying to find the other Brawlers. 

A sun quietly crawled into the sky, throwing pinks and yellows into the clouds. The others rose after what seemed an eternity of watching the sun rise. There was nothing to pack, nothing to eat, so they simply waited for the daze of waking to pass, and got back to walking. 

They got to their destination by the end of the day (mostly because Saurus had recovered enough from the fight to carry them again, and his steps were worth dozens of theirs, as opposed to their own efforts) a ravine. A deep crack in the surface of Vestroia. 

They descended into it, and soon even Saurus’ bone-white horns were swallowed. For a moment, their whole world was murk and dark and the smell of decomposition, and then a halo of light greeted them - it took Alice’s eyes a moment to adjust, and she saw will-o-wisps in the dark before they resolved themselves into the gentle glow of Haos bakugan. Saurus set them down, and then returned to ball-form. That was strange - surely here, on their home world, they should be able to maintain their true forms? But here they were, scuttling around the bottom of a crack in the world looking like toys. She wanted to ask, but before she could even open her mouth, Runo took her by the hand and led her deeper, beyond the soft light - to where the dark undergrowth was really itself. 

“There’s someone here to meet you.” 

Alice couldn’t begin to imagine who. Hydranoid, maybe? But even then that seemed a little odd, given even Runo hadn’t met up with her guardian bakugan yet. 

“Alice.” 

It wasn’t a voice she recognised. It took her a moment to spot the owner of it. But there, in the damp earth, was one of the bakugan she saw when memories of his actions came to haunt her in the night. 

Centipoid. 

She was surprised, for a moment - _His_ Bakugan had tended to disappear mysteriously until at last Hydranoid had reached his three-headed state. She had assumed Centipoid was one of those unfortunates. But then… They’d freed them all, hadn’t they? From the Doom Dimension. So of course Centipoid would be here, although… How did they know her name?

“Do I… Know you?” Well, yes she did, but did it count if they’d never officially met? Centipoid laughed. Or at least, Alice thought that the noise they made was a laugh. 

“I know you, Alice, even if you don’t know me,” 

“Uhh…”

“We watched you, you know, when the master was away.” 

Well. Wasn’t that nice. She’d had an audience she didn’t know about. Of course, that was right up his street wasn’t it? Causing problems even after he was dead.

“… I’m sorry, you probably didn’t want to know that,” Centipoid broke what Alice assumed was eye-contact - it was hard to tell, “What I called you here for was I know what happened to Hydranoid.”

What… Happened?

“I want to help you rescue him.”

He needed rescuing? Another friend in trouble? A cold sweat ran down Alice’s spine. What… What exactly had happened to the Bakugan when they’d returned to their world?

“Tell me.” 

And so, Centipoid told her the whole story. How everything had been rosy, but then these people - calling themselves the Vestals - came from the sky. How their devices had switched all the Bakugan into ball-form. And how they’d then captured almost all of them for their own use. There were only a few pockets, where their ships had passed over, where the bakugan still lived freely. Or, sort of free. Free provided they stayed out of sight. Provided they were careful to never let the invaders catch on. 

Apparently Hydranoid and the others - Tigrerra and Gorem and Skyress and Preyas - had decided that this wouldn’t stand. They fought the Vestals, but they lost. They were captured. And now, the Vestals were doing god-knows what to all of them. Centipoid had only heard rumours, but none of them were comforting.

Alice was numb. All this, in the space of a year? Was it even that long? That tiny amount of time and all that misery. And no-one knew what had really happened to her bakugan friends. To Hydranoid. All she could see was that poor creature back under the stadium. Screaming as it was tortured. Its voice in Alice’s memory split into three, and she imagined Hydranoid held there, bound with electricity and tortured with it, too. She had to save him. Had to save them all! 

Perhaps this was why Dan had left them. So they didn’t have to be burdened with the knowledge that their friends - their partners - had been taken. Were being tortured. No wonder Drago had separated himself from the core. He couldn’t have just stayed there as his comrades fought and lost. 

“Do you know where Hydranoid was taken?” 

“He’s probably in the Palace… With all the rest of them.”

Centipoid spoke with a voice of pure dread. Whatever this ‘palace’ was, it was clear it was better to avoid it. But… If that’s where Hydranoid and the others were, what choice did they really have?

Perhaps sensing her resolve, Centipoid continued hurriedly: 

“But we can’t break into it like this, none of us are strong enough!” 

Then… What had been the point in telling her all this? A bad joke. Her friends were in danger and she couldn’t do anything about it. Just like old times.

“So what’re we supposed to do? Just sit around feeling sorry for ourselves?!” Runo broke in loudly. Alice jumped - she’d forgotten the blue-haired girl was there. Centipoid had too apparently, judging by the way they snapped back into a ball. They uncurled, eventually, after the fright wore off. 

“We need some stronger allies,” They turned back to Alice, “We need to go get them back from the Vestals!”

Of course, that was easier said than done. The sum total of their knowledge of the enemy was that they kidnapped a huge amount of Bakugan, and they held tournaments in their cities. That was it. They didn’t know where they were held, who had them, or anything. What sort of plan could they make knowing only that? 

“We need to bust in there and take them all out!” Runo, as usual, favoured just getting on with things. It was a relief that very few of the gathered bakugan supported her plan. In fact, the only people in favour were Runo herself, Saurus and Ravenoid. Naturally, she had ranted and raved a little after that - ‘we can’t just sit here’ and ‘Are you all chickens?’ were the favourite refrains. She calmed down eventually, though. Even she understood that they didn’t have the manpower to do what she was suggesting - she just… Wanted to do something. 

“Shouldn’t we try to find Dan and Drago?” Julie suggested, “Drago’s super strong!”

That’s what they’d come here to do, right? But they had no leads. Dan could be anywhere. Vestroia was a very big place… Where did they even start looking? 

“What if we did something big… Like, really big! I bet Dan couldn’t resist checking it out!”

She… She had a point. Dan always did seem to be attracted to big dangerous events. 

“Something big like what?” That was the crux of it. Annoyingly, Runo’s idea probably would have been just the thing, if only they could have pulled it off. 

“Uuuh…” Julie trailed off. She too, had no idea. Except… 

“Why don’t we enter one of their tournaments?”

That… Well, it certainly wasn’t the worst idea. 

“If we win, that’s bound to cause a fuss, right?”

“But… They’ve got our faces all over,” Alice’s hands went to her hair, “If we go back, they’ll just catch us…” 

“Hmm,” Julie had something of a smile again - she had a plan, maybe, “Then we’ll have to go in disguise!”

Would that work? Last time they’d been caught immediately, and that was before they had a city full of people who knew their faces. Although if they could get away with it… They might be able to get Dan and Drago’s attention, and win some bakugan back from the Vestals. And it was definitely a better plan than just running in guns-a-blazing. 

Spectra was discussing strategy too - although he wasn’t sitting at the bottom of a ravine, but rather in his own private lodgings, with the rest of his team - the Vexos - on a video chat. They’d wanted him in person, of course, but he had far better things to do. 

He hadn’t yet told them about the break-in at Alpha City. They’d just rush in and scare off the intruders after all. Or, worse yet, destroy them before getting any information from them. No, better to pretend that all was well and catch them again himself. 

Mylene was wittering on about capturing more bakugan. Spectra wasn’t really listening - anything important would be in the log, anyway. No, he was considering his enemy. How they teleported away from him, but then fled on foot. It suggested a charging time. Or maybe their teleporting technology had broken? He wouldn’t know until he cornered them again, and for that to happen, they’d have to appear again. But they would - he was sure about that. It was a wasteland outside the city. If they hadn’t brought their own provisions, then they were going to have to come back. And he’d be waiting for them.

Eventually, the meeting adjourned. A notification popped up on his gauntlet, sat on the table across from his chair. The minutes of the meeting. He’d check it later. More importantly, he had Helios to visit. 

It wasn’t a long trip - Spectra made his way down, down, down, into the belly of the building, where the cries of the experiments were muffled by the steady hum of countless generators. Helios was here too, although held by no bonds. The dark-red, spike-covered dragonoid sat almost peacefully in his cell, although the scorch-marks on the floor and walls and on his body told a different story. Spectra brushed past scurrying scientists. 

“How are you feeling Helios?” 

The dragonoid - Helios - turned his sharp-toothed face to look at his master. Had his face had the flexibility, perhaps he would have smiled. 

“Ready for more, master.” 

“Very good,” Spectra snapped his fingers at the gathered scientists, “Begin.” 

Electricity snapped and crackled, drawing long silhouettes away from the gathered Vestals. It played upon Helios’ spines, leaping from one to the other and leaving long black smudges on his skin. The bakugan roared. Spectra watched impassively. It was a painful process. Not every test subject survived. But Helios was strong, and with this, he’d be even stronger.


	4. Chapter 4

Under the cover of night, Alice crept along the streets. She had covered herself head to toe in a great fluttering length of fabric, snatched off of some poor Vestal’s shop front. She felt guilty, sure, but they had bigger things to worry about.

Starving to death, for example. The Bakugan seemed okay because they subsisted on… Energy or something, probably, but she, Runo and Julie couldn’t eat grass forever. She slipped a card between the door and doorframe of a shop with probably-food in the window, and to Alice’s surprise it actually clicked open. She’d only seen that in movies - she hadn’t actually expected it to work! Oh well. She wasn’t going to look a gift-horse in the mouth. She unwound her impromptu cloak some way, and began filling it with all the food she could get her hands on.

She stepped over the threshold. The alarm screamed. Alice spat something between a scream and a curse and dropped a bread roll. She rummaged through the layers of fabric she was wearing, panic making her clumsy. There was going to be people coming! Police! That masked man!! She dropped the DT card. Could she hear footsteps, or was that just the blood pumping into her head? She scrabbled on the floor, eventually got a hold, and teleported.

But

Not all the way out, like she wanted.

The thing dumped her just inside the city gates. Mere inches from becoming one with the wood. Man, what was wrong with the thing? Had… Had coming to Vestroia with done something? Overloaded it, maybe?

Footsteps. Now wasn’t the time.

“Centipoid, help!” Alice released the bakugan with a whisper, as if that would help make the great purple flash and the crash of many legs on solid surface be any less attractive to the people trying to find them.

Centipoid lifted Alice gently with his giant sickle pincers, and crawled backwards over the wall. Alice watched the Vestals swarm, shouting orders that she couldn’t hear. They’d open the gate, presumably, but by then it’d be too late to catch them. Centipoid was fast.

It still took some time to get back to the ravine. They’d gone an extremely roundabout way, just in case anyone was following them, but no-one appeared. Perhaps by the time they’d gotten the gate open, they’d lost sight of her and Centipoid? Alice hoped so.

Julie looked up, as purple light washed into pink against the Haos glow. Alice was back. Or… Someone was back. They were swaddled in so much fabric it was frankly hard to tell.

Alice removed her makeshift hood with a grin, and set down what she had stolen.

“We did it. How about you guys?”

Julie and Runo held up the items at their feet in answer: three masks, made from bits of shed Bakugan, leaves and bark. They were horrifying, really, with stretched eye-holes and great gurning mouths, but they’d certainly do the job.

“All set! Let’s do this!” Runo gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off the food Alice had brought. Neither could Julie. And it had been quite the task for Alice to bring it all back without even trying a little, she had to admit. Their task could wait: Now was time for food!

“Was it really okay to let her go, Lord Spectra?” The uniformed officer was quaking in her boots. She didn’t like Spectra - didn’t like the Vexos as a whole - and really wanted to go home and go to bed, but here they were, standing outside in the middle of the night.

It was hard to tell Spectra’s expression with the mask that simply glared all the time, but the officer was willing to bet it was contempt.

“She’ll bring her friends next time,” He stared up at the gate, where the beautiful surface had been marred by the centipede bakugan’s legs, “We’ll catch them all in one fell stroke.”

The air flowed through a dozen little cracks in the mask. It wasn’t as terrible as Alice had been expecting. Mostly because it wasn’t dying the whole world blue. She looked down - below was the Vestal city. They’d decided that they had to make their entrance as flashy - and dangerous - as possible. If news was going to spread, they had to make one hell of an impact. She, Julie and Runo hung onto Ravenoid’s neck, like some sort of strange necklace. Had they seen them, down below? They must have, surely? As high as they were, they were the only thing in the sky. If not, they’d certainly see them soon.

Alice took a nervous breath.

Ravenoid dropped.

Alice was on autopilot. She jumped before Ravenoid hit the ground. Landed elegantly. Julie and Runo were not far behind, although without Alice’s unconscious experience in being extremely dramatic, their landings were far more ungainly. Still, it did the trick. The crowd was silent. The two bakugan who had been fighting had stopped to stare. So had the brawlers.

“Go, Runo, go!” Alice hissed under her breath. The plan was rapidly spiralling out of control. It was okay, though. She could get it back on track. They could get it back on track. Runo nodded, and as she took a few steps to address the crowd, Alice was sure she could see her gulping. Geez, maybe she should have done the talking? Although the nerves swimming around in the pit of her stomach suggested she could have done nothing of the sort.

“We are the Brawler Trio!” Runo announced, in the deepest voice she could muster, “We are here to grace your little tournament with our presence!”

It sounded… Pretentious now. In front of this hushed crowd. It had sounded okay, back in the ravine, when it hadn’t been the real thing and people hadn’t been watching and the danger wasn’t so, so present. It hung thickly in the air. Alice could almost see it, she was sure. They could do this, though. They could do it. They just had to stick to the plan. She puffed herself up in a way that she was hoping was making her look superior and not like a very small, cold bird.

The crowd had started to murmer amongst themselves. And then the murmur became a mumble. And then talking. And then raised voices. And then Alice, Runo and Julie found themselves being booed at by an uncountable number of people. It was a great wave of noise, crashing over them and stunning them with the force of it. It was quite something, to have this many people upset at you. To have this level of hate directed at you. It was… Not the plan.

Alice thought fast.

Julie thought faster.

“Hynoid, brawl!”

The brown beast roared at the gathered Vestals. It didn’t silence the booing, but people were certainly more interested now. Less of them were booing. Some of them were back to talking to their neighbours. Alice shrugged - not that anyone not her friends could see it, and tossed Centipoid out too. So, there they were - three of their bakugan - Hynoid, Centipoid and Ravenoid, and the two enemy bakugan: A pair of lizards. One Alice and Julie recognised, the other they did not. A beat. And then they met in battle, a sea of writhing limbs and snapping jaws. No brawler spoke. Just watched as their monsters fought like animals. Like the animals they were. As Alice watched Centipoid wind their body around and around and around one of the lizards - the one which Alice didn’t recognise. It had big hands, which were currently completely useless as Centipoid wrapped them tighter and tighter in their crushing embrace. They were just starting to bring their pincers in to finish the job when a panicked announcement rang from speakers Alice hadn’t noticed.

“Stop! Stop!” She held up a hand. Centipoid paused. “We’ll let you enter, but please, stop interfering with this battle!”

Alice looked to her compatriots. Obviously this was what they wanted, but they had to at least seem as if they were mulling it over. Then they turned, and held their hands outstretched. With a plume of white, purple and brown light, their bakugan returned to them. From one of the doors lining the arena, a worried-looking Vestal bustled out. He tried to corral the group by holding out his arms, but obviously this didn’t work so well. Still, the girls let themselves be herded into the door eventually, as he muttered things like ‘please, we’re trying to put on a show here’ and ‘management is going to kill me’.

He led them into a little room that apparently had no discernible door - he simply knew where to open the wall to let them in. Alice marvelled at it - no wonder they'd been discovered so quickly before - they had doors you'd only know about if you were supposed to be there!

The room was white, just as everything outside was. A sofa lined the edges, and in the middle was a small coffee table. On one wall was a monitor, showing the battlefield - and the battle that was resuming after their little interlude. “There’ll be an announcement when you’re up.” The Vestal looked tired, “Please, please stay here until then.”

Well then. They’d gotten what they wanted. Probably. Alice desperately wanted to remove her mask - she knew the others did too, judging by the way they adjusted them and scratched at their skin as the rough backs scraped at their flesh. But they couldn’t take them off - they didn’t know what sort of cameras were in here. It only took one moment of indiscretion and their whole operation could be blown right out of the water.

Alice watched the battle with no real interest - there was simply nothing else in the room to do. They had their strategy, and they’d decided they weren’t going to discuss that behind enemy lines, either. Just in case. The two lizards whacked away at each other with their claws. Brutal. One brawler activated an ability that made their lizard’s claws glow, and they landed a nasty blow on their opponent, making them go reeling. The opposing brawler responded by… They threw in another bakugan? But this one… It wasn’t round, like other bakugan were. It was… It was a cube? And when it opened, it was mechanical! Well… Mechanical-looking bakugan weren’t impossible - Robotallion and Laserman were plenty robot-like. But… Well, neither of them were cubes in ball form, and besides, there was just something about this one that was… Off-putting, somehow. It gave Alice the shivers, and she just couldn’t put her finger on why. She watched it punch the lizard with the glowing claws, giving its own lizard time to recover.

So that was something to look out for. It wasn’t like you couldn't be ganged up on anyway - there were plenty of ability and gate cards for that - Runo had always enjoyed that strategy - But just being able to throw it in..? Weird. Surely there was a catch? They hadn’t activated any abilities, so… Maybe that was the drawback? It was hard to guess just watching. She supposed she’d find out soon enough.

The stadium manager shut the door quietly. Behind him - behind a desk - Spectra lounged. Helios sat on the table in ball-form, quietly watching the man approach.

“Lord Spectra, the three calling themselves the ‘Brawler Trio’ are in Room 14A” He placed a thin tablet computer on the table, displaying the video feed from the room where Alice, Julie and Runo were.

“Good,” Spectra smiled, taking the tablet gently in his hands and observing the video with his unblinking stare, “Let them participate in the tournament.”

“I’m sorry?” This hadn’t been part of the plan - they were just going to lock them in, weren’t they?

“Let them participate.” Spectra turned his gaze on the man, who wilted under it like a delicate flower under a magnifying glass, “I’ll assess their strength. I want to see if they’re worth mine and Helios’ time.”

Spectra looked back to the tablet, and the manager sensed that he was being dismissed. He was going to busy anyway. He had a whole tournament bracket to redo!

The announcement eventually came. Runo was first up. She was excited, naturally - a chance to brawl! Actually brawl! None of them had thought they’d get the chance after the Bakugan went home, and so even though they were all nervous, they were also all quite excited.

Still, Runo managed to compose herself, and exited the room with an exaggerated air of stately grace. She walked with a swagger all the way onto the field, and observed it from her podium. It was perfectly flat, and quite small. No room for fancy manoeuvres here. It favoured power plays, definitely.

A klaxon sounded: the start of the match. Her opponent threw in a gate card, and it disappeared as it expanded. That was still weird - no matter how much Runo reminded herself that the rules would be different because different people made the rules - it was still weird that the gate cards disappeared and you could only have one on the field at a time. It made quite a few of her strategies unusable. Well, that and… She didn’t want to think about it.

“Ability activate!” She shoved the card into her gauntlet. She may not have had the field advantage, but she was determined to have the speed one, “Haos Impact!” Ravenoid glowed, and the gauntlet said in its robotic voice “Haos Ravenoid up 100G’s.”

Ravenoid was up to 340. A decent start, if Runo said so herself. Her opponent apparently didn’t think so, though. They scoffed, and their bakugan - a snake-looking thing that Runo didn’t recognise as either Serpenoid or Rattleoid - came hurtling towards her bird-man. Ravenoid stood his ground. His fist connected solidly with his opponents face. The snake went flying. But not as far as Runo was expecting.

She glanced down at her gauntlet. “Enemy at 330gs” What! That powerful? At base?? That was ridiculous! What had they done to these bakugan to make them so strong…? Or… were the Bakugan that came to earth really that weak? She had to doubt it, but… It was a hard thing to ignore.

“Gate Card Open! Aquos Reactor!”

“Aquos Bakugan up 100gs”

Agh! That put the enemy at 430! That was way over Ravenoid!!

“Haos Barrier!”

The bubble appeared just as the snake-like bakugan launched itself at Ravenoid. It was stuck for a few moments, before it peeled off, and the bubble vanished with an audible ‘pop’!

“Aquos Enemy down five-zero gs”

It was at 380. Still stronger than Ravenoid. Ugh.

The enemy recovered quickly, and soon Ravenoid was tangled up in its coils!

“Ravenoid!” Runo couldn’t help but cry out. This had all gone so wrong, so quickly, and how was she going to fix it?? She looked down at the cards in her hand. She hadn’t wanted to use up all her resources so quickly, but at this rate…

Alice and Julie sat stiffly in the waiting room. Alice was gripping the seat so tightly she swore she could hear the fabric ripping under her nails. Julie had her hands on her knees, but she was so stiff it was certain she was going to have handprints on her knees when she let go. Neither of them could tear their eyes away from the screen. It was terrible. All this, and Runo was going to lose in the first round.

The opponent threw something - something not bakugan shaped. Nevertheless, it unfolded into a blaze of light, and up came a long, mechanical-looking bakugan. The two snakes hissed in tandem, and had Runo been anyone else, she might have been worried. But two against one? Those were odds she liked.

“Ability activate! Quartet Battle!”

Saurus glowed with white light, and flew onto the battlefield. Runo glanced down at her gauntlet. Her bakugan were sitting at 720gs and the opponents were… 730. Still higher. But… She had one more trick up her sleeve.

“Fusion ability activate! Glow-Up!”

A flare of light consumed the battlefield. Runo’s opponent had to shield their eyes, but Runo was quite used to it. Missed it, even. Saurus and Ravenoid rushed at their opponents and they were beaten down under fists and claws and horns and beaks. They vanished in a haze of blue, and the watery field faded away.

Round two.

“Gate card set!”

This was Runo’s game. She’d had first blood. She was going to win. Of course, she’d used four of her five abilities… But she was going to win.

“I can do this.” She whispered to herself, more confidently that she felt, deep down inside.

“Bakugan brawl! Saurus, stand!”

The snake came back out. Runo frowned, briefly, but she supposed if no-one was stopping the match this must be okay. They already played with different rules than she was used to - frankly she was lucky her old ability cards - long unused since the Bakugan went home - still worked.

The round went much like the last: Runo’s bakugan attacked, and ended up tangled up in a snake. Still though, Saurus was doing better than Falconeer - being 380 at his base level, for example. He had always been one of Runo’s strongest and most prized Bakugan. He had the snake’s head in his arms, and squeezed.

“Ability activate! Water Jet!”

“Opponent up one zero zero gs”

Well now, that wasn’t good. But her last card had a punch.

“Ability activate! Rapid Haos!”

Falconeer was on the battlefield again, diving at the serpent and slicing at it with its claws. Soon there were two snakes on the battlefield. Runo wasn’t worried. She still had her gate card.

The mechanical snake sank its metal teeth into Saurus’ arm. Falconeer screeched as a lashing tail whacked him out of the sky. Runo stared at her opponent - as far away as they were - eye to eye. Daring them to be the first to break the impasse. They were going to. They were sure to. They’d lose otherwise. They knew she still had her gate card, even if they had the slight G-power advantage. Their hand went to their card holder. Removed a card. Slotted it into their gauntlet. A blue surge of light enveloped the serpentine bakugan.

“Ability activate! Tidal Wave!”

A great wall of water reared up behind the blue bakugan. Crashed down as they screeched. Saurus and Ravenoid braced for impact.

“Gate Card open! Power Trick!” “G-Power values reversed. Saurus and Ravenoid at seven three zero gs.”

The wave splintered into a fine mist as the ground glowed golden. The serpents were visible for a few moments, before they couldn’t take it any longer and their bodies evaporated in a blue burst. They clattered to the ground by their brawler’s feet. Balls again. The announcement came tinny over the stadium speakers:

“The first of the Brawler Trio is victorious!”

Runo left the battlefield to the roar of the crowd. It felt good to fight again. Really good. She couldn’t wait to fight with Tigrerra again.


	5. Chapter 5

The door slid open quietly, and Runo burst into the room.

“I won! I won!” She pounced on Alice, who had the bad fortune of sitting closest to the door, but soon turned her attention to Julie, “Did you see me? I won!”

“Yeah!” Julie returned the tight hug, until their masks clattered together and they remembered the situation they were in. This wasn’t a tournament where they could simply relax. They were still in danger. Would be until they were back in the ravine once again. Possibly would be in danger, even then.

“Who’s up next?”

Alice and Julie shrugged. It seemed out of their hands. Nothing to do but sit and wait for the announcement.

And announced it was. After several games played by Vestals against Vestals, Julie was called. She stood, determined, and then remembered she was supposed to be a creep in a mask, and stalked out of the room with all the drama she could muster. Runo had led them to a good start. She _had _to maintain it.

On the short walk to the battlefield - which nevertheless felt like an eternity - Julie fished into her clothing and pulled out a brown orb. Hynoid. He was all she had. But… That was okay. Runo’s forté was getting the numbers over on her opponent. Hers was - at least since Gorem - simply not budging, no matter what they threw at her. Hynoid was no Gorem, sure, but he was good. He would be just fine.

She climbed the last of the steps up to the raised area where the brawlers stood. Gave a curt nod to her opponent.

“Gate card set! Bakugan Brawl! Hynoid, stand!”

Hynoid snarled as his paws touched the ground. Bared his teeth at the empty space before him. It was soon filled up with a bakugan who looked like an armoured human. It gave a wordless shout, and settled into a fighting stance. It was also brown.

So, it was a Subterra showdown was it? Julie could do that.

Hynoid launched himself at his opponent, mouth wide. The man-like bakugan swung its fist. Connected. Hynoid went flying. Hynoid scrambled upright and went for it again. Julie glanced down at Runo’s gauntlet.

“Opponent at three eight zero gs”

Tied, huh. Well, not for long!

“Gate card open!” The field’s grassy surface changed to… A picture of Hynoid? “Character card!”

“Hynoid up three eight zero g’s. Power level holding steady at seven six zero gs.”

Ha! She’d like to see her opponent beat _that!_

“Ability activate!” The humanoid bakugan raised its fists, “Ground Pound!”

The image of Hynoid shattered into a thousand pieces.

“Hynoid down three eight zero gs. Hynoid down one zero zero g’s. No other changes detected.”

Oh. They did. And not only that, they’d created a 100g gap with just one card.

“Double Ability activate! Desert Thunder and Whirlwind!”

“Hynoid up one zero zero gs.”

The hyena bakugan crackled with electricity as it began to run. He whirled faster and faster and faster, until he was a blur trackable only by the swirl of electricity he created as he went. The humanoid bakugan’s fighting stance didn’t change. It seemed cool. Collected.

Hynoid launched himself at his enemy, fangs bared in a blaze of lightning and snarls. The humanoid grabbed him by the jaws. Went stumbling backwards with the force of it. One minute Hynoid was on top, savaging whatever he could reach to be savaged, at then the human-looking bakugan was, striking out with balled-up fists.

“You can do it!”

Julie didn’t know if there was much point in calling out to Hynoid, but until her opponent showed their hand, it was really all she could do. Just had to hope Hynoid could be true to his earthy heritage and be steady as a rock. She wished she had Gorem here. Not the first time she’d thought it, but certainly the first time she’d thought it in Vestroia. During a battle.

“Ability activate: Rolling Punch!’

The humanoid drew its armoured fist back. Here it came. It struck. Hynoid yelped and his legs collapsed. The card in Julie’s hand returned from the edge of the gauntlet. Too late. Hynoid was out this round.

Julie checked the bar - one with her masked countenance on, the other with her opponent’s. Life bars, she assumed, judging by the way hers had just decreased. But not by too much. There was still time to make a comeback. She just had to believe in Hynoid!

“Bakugan brawl! Hynoid stand!”

Hynoid’s second appearance was not quite as enthusiastic as his first, but he couldn’t be faulted for not trying: he snarled, he bared his teeth. He just looked more than a little worn out.

The bakugan tussled again. Wasting time and energy that her opponent was apparently more than happy to waste.Hynoid was panting and the other bakugan? It seemed to be indifferent to the energy expenditure. Hmm. She needed to do something. Anything. Or she was going to lose her only bakugan to exhaustion.

“Ability activate! Sandstorm!”

“Subterra Bakugan up one zero zero gs.”

They were still tied, but now the battlefield was covered in whirling sand. Vaguely, Julie could see the shape of Hynoid. No longer tangled up with his opponent. Hopefully what little respite the sandstorm could provide would be enough.

“Gate Card Open! Double Exposure!”

“Hynoid down one zero zero gs. Enemy Bakugan up one zero zero gs.”

So much for respite. In the gaps that the sandstorm readily devoured, the enemy bakugan could be seen, swinging its fists around violently. If it couldn’t see Hynoid, it would just punch until it hit him, apparently. 

“Ability Activate! Subterra Howl!”

Hynoid’s howl blasted sand out in waves.

“Hynoid up one five zero gs.”

The humanoid bakugan went with it, landing flat on its back. Hynoid pounced as the sand drifted to the ground.

“Ability activate!”

Teeth bared, the hyena bakugan’s jaws parted, ready to tear into its enemy.

“Sucker Punch!”

A fist smashed into Hynoid’s face. His body twisted in the air like a broken doll.

“Hynoid is at four eight zero gs. Enemy bakugan is at six eight zero gs.”

Hynoid tried to run, but the enemy bakugan picked him up by the scruff of his neck, and threw him across the arena. He landed with a heavy thump. Julie went for a card to help him, but she was out. This was it.

Hynoid’s body glowed softly brown, and flew back to Julie’s waiting feet. She picked him up gently, as if she could do him any more damage than the enemy already had. She turned, and descended from her pedestal. Behind her, the announcement was made: She’d lost by virtue of having no more bakugan able to battle. In the end, she just wasn’t tough enough.

“Julie!”

“Julie…”

Runo pounced almost before the door was open, wrapping her friend in her arms. Alice sat quietly with a sad look in her eyes. Julie - with her hanger-on still firmly attached - sat on the sofa.

“Ugh!” She threw her arms back, breaking Runo’s hug, “That totally sucked! _I_ totally sucked!”

She held Hynoid gently in her hands, suddenly quiet again: “Sorry Hynoid… You fought really hard for me…”

“Don’t beat yourself up Julie, the Vestals are strong.”

“Yeah! What Alice said! Even I had a hard time!”

Despite herself, Julie smiled behind her mask. She could always count on her friends to cheer her up, even at a time like this. She detached the gauntlet from her wrist, and handed it to Alice.

“You’re next Alice, good luck.”

Alice stood on her pedestal - and it _was _a pedestal: frankly she was impressed neither Runo or Julie had fallen off, given how excited they tended to get. She was impressed _she_ hadn’t fallen off yet, given the way the ground seemed to be swirling around down there.

“Alice… Are you alright?” A voice from somewhere within her many folds of fabric asked.

“I’m fine, Centipoid just…” She swallowed. Her throat was dry, “Just a little nervous.”

“It’ll be fine, Alice. They can’t throw anything at us we aren’t prepared for.”

Alice wasn’t quite sure how true that was, but she certainly appreciated the sentiment.At least her opponent didn’t have a mask. Perhaps that was hypocritical of her, but seeing that her opponent was some normal person was really helpful, given her last game with Hydranoid was against…

The opponent threw a card down. The game had begun! She threw Centipoid and they became a purple streak, appearing in their true form amid a maelstrom of purple. Her opponent was purple too. It stepped out of the light, revealing huge tattered wings, towering horns - one of which was snapped halfway down, and a huge scythe.

It was…

It was…

“Reaper?!”

They stood for a moment - Alice, Centipoid and Reaper. It seemed none of them could quite believe their eyes. Who’d have thought it, after all, that Alice would meet not only Masquerade’s Centipoid, but his old Guardian Bakugan too. The one who had sworn revenge as he was tossed out in favour of Hydranoid…

The Hydranoid who had become her partner after Masquerade had died…

Reaper’s one good eye narrowed. He pointed the scythe straight at Alice.

“I told you I’d have revenge!”

With a reverberating clang, Centipoid caught Reaper’s scythe between their pincers. But Reaper had the higher power level, and it was slipping.

“Ability Card activate! Violet Spark!”

Tongues of purple electricity scrambled up Reaper’s scythe, and he let go. Centipoid lunged. They didn’t have much time - they only had 10g over Reaper, and in any case, Centipoid knew exactly what Reaper’s abilities were capable of. They did this quickly or not at all.

“Ability activate! Double Dimension!”

Reaper took hold of both Centipoid’s pincers, and pulled them away from his head. Kept pulling, in fact, even as Centipoid screeched in pain.

“Ability activate! Spiced Assault!”

“Centipoid up one zero zero g’s. Reaper down one zero zero g’s.”

Reaper could only nullify an ability once. That was his weakness. If he belonged to a brawler who could be baited into using it…

“Ability activate! Reaper of the Chaos!”

That… That was new.

“Reaper up two zero zero g’s”

Reaper swung his scythe. Centipoid’s pincers closed seconds after the weapon passed through them. Centipoid screamed as an antenna fell gently to the floor.

“Centipoid!!” Alice couldn’t help herself, “Ability activate! Black Hole!”

Reaper’s scythe hit the ground with a dull ‘thunk’. Centipoid was nowhere to be seen.

“Reaper!” Alice started as the glowing red eye turned towards her, “I’m not the one you want revenge on.”

The eye narrowed.

“I’m _not_ Masquerade!”

Reaper clenched his free fist. Turned his body to face her. 

“But you _were!” _The scythe swung. Alice screamed.

And then Reaper screamed too. Alice dared to crack open her eyes, and before her was a rushing train of legs coming up and up and up and up with a flailing Reaper caught at the very top.

“Reaper down five zero g’s.”

Centipoid crashed down to earth, unable to defy gravity any longer. Reaper came with them, and smashed into the ground head first. The scythe clattered away for the second time.

“Reaper down five zero g’s”

The pincers closed on Reaper’s skinny abdomen, even as he pulled at them and pulled the antenna and scratched and kicked at Centipoid’s face. All he got for his trouble was a pair of sharp blades burying themselves ever deeper in his flesh.

“Reaper down five zero g’s.”

“Gate Card open! Darkus Reactor!”

“Darkus Bakugan up one zero zero g’s.”

Centipoid was still on top, but that bought Reaper more time. And time wasn’t something Alice was keen to allow him.

“Ability activate! Black Chaos!”

Clouds gathered over the battlefield as the white gauntlet on Alice’s wrist glowed with a deep purple light. They cracked with energy, snapping and popping as they covered the sky and enveloped the stadium in darkness. 

And then! A bolt of pure blackness down from the heavens.It raced across Centipoid’s exoskeleton. Sparked from their pincers. Leapt snapping from their legs. 

The sound of blade-over-blade rang out over the now-quieted crowd. Reaper cried out as his body returned itself to ball form.

And he and Centipoid rattled to a stop next to Alice’s foot.

What?

The announcement sounded as if her head was in a fishbowl.

“The third of the Brawler Trio wins by taking the opponent Bakugan!”

That was… A win condition? She bent down. Picked the two Bakugan up. Neither sprang open.

Alice was subject to the same sort of celebrations as the others were subject to, of course. Both Julie and Runo enclosed her in tight hugs - both together and separately - and congratulated her profusely. It felt… Well, it felt weird. Not _ bad, _necessarily, but weird. Reaper had sworn revenge on her, but here he was, with her and apparently he had no qualms about it.

“Alice? What’s the matter?” Runo held her at arms length with a concerned look taking over from her smile, “Aren’t you happy you won?”

“Of course I am,” Alice spoke with more conviction that she really felt, “It’s just… I wasn’t expecting to see Reaper here… That’s all.”

She shrugged, and sank into the neat sofa. It was only just dawning on her that she had no idea how much of this tournament they had left. Would she have to fight Runo at some point? What would happen to Julie, now that she was - presumably - out?

The screen showing the current standings in a language none of the girls understood abruptly changed. A sharp blue eye stared out of a blood-red mask, and Alice couldn’t help but let out a sharp breath. _Him_. It took a while for her to tune into the conversation - Spectra… Spectra Phantom was joining the competition? So, she finally had a name for the face. Was he joining because he’d seen her and Julie? They’d come wearing disguises, but there was no disguising their voices, Alice supposed. Or all those people who’d seen Centipoid, even if they hadn’t seen her.

Well, this was what they’d wanted, right? To make a big enough fuss to draw out Dan? This was certainly a big fuss, so it was time to put their money where their mouth was.

“When one of us is called to fight him… I’ll go.” Alice’s voice was soft, but the room was nigh-on silent.

“Alice! You can’t! I won’t!!” Julie and Runo started, talking over each other until their words were completely unintelligible. Alice held a hand up and they eventually stopped. Just about.

“Listen, with Reaper I’ve got the strongest bakugan here,” It felt a little like bragging, but it was simply facts. If nothing else, Masquerade didn’t trouble himself with weak bakugan, “If anyone has a chance, it’s me.”

Julie and Runo wanted to argue. Alice could tell. Their arguments were teetering at their lips, but hers was sound. They didn’t know how strong this guy was - but given their past experience with masked men and bakugan, it didn’t look good - so it would make sense for the person with the strongest creature on their side to go. And, not only that, it was only technically-speaking the first time Reaper and Alice had fought together. When Masquerade had left, he had left behind a whole year’s worth of experiences. A whole year’s worth of bakugan strategies.

“So, when they call me, this is what we’ll do…”

Three masked, cloaked figures made their way up to the pedestal. Spectra watched them with a half-amused smile. It didn’t matter what they were up to. With him and Helios here, they had no chance.

He stood and strolled over to the sheer edge. Looked down for a beat. And then threw Helios into the fray. Spectra was lit by red, and the wind whipped his hair and the the jagged edge of his coat about dramatically.Two of the three figures threw bakugan. One into the battlefield, and the other into the air. Ah, that was their game.

Purple and white light mixed to pink as Centipoid and Falconeer took their true forms. Centipoid darted towards Helios with a chitter. Falconeer arranged two of the masked figures in its arms.

“Helios.”

Helios had seen. He wasn’t stupid. With a beat of his wings, he dodged the centipede bakugan’s bite, and spat fire at the bird that was trying so pathetically to escape.

Falconeer screeched as the flames singed feathers. The girls screamed as its grasp loosened. But it didn’t fall. It too, wasn’t stupid. It was hardly difficult to spot a dragon breathing fire at them from only a few hundred meters away. It beat its wings and rose higher and higher. Maybe the dragon would follow but that wouldn’t matter: Reaper could fly, too.

Spectra watched, his smile gone. Helios had used too little power, clearly. Oh well. The situation was quite recoverable. And now he only had one opponent.

“Why don’t you take off that mask, hmm?” He spoke into a microphone at his lapel, and his voice boomed around the stadium. The girl, having to do without such a luxury, shouted back:

“You first!”

“Helios, squash that bug.”

Helios roared, and tucked his wings, plummeting straight back down.

“Ability activate!”

Ah ‘Black Hole’. Spectra had seen that in her last brawl.So the bug was somewhere underground now was it? It couldn’t stay down there forever, and with the mere 100g boost it provided, it still wasn’t anywhere near Helios’ level.

Helios prowled about the arena, spiky armour plates clanking as he moved. This was cowardly! Hiding underground. A real bakugan would fight him one on one! Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a fight, but Helios would still enjoy it. It wasn’t the fight that was satisfying, after all, but the feeling of victory.

“Ability!”

Spectra’s mouth pulled up into a smirk. She’d noticed the power discrepancy had she? Well, what was she going to do? Waste another two ability cards?

“Rapid Darkus!”

Oh. Well, that would work, wouldn’t it. A new Bakugan rolled out. Appeared haloed in deep violet. With a broken horn and tattered wings, Reaper bore the marks of many battles. Impressive. Or at least it would be if Reaper’s power level was anything to be bothered with. Spectra looked down at his gauntlet.

“Reaper power level at three seven zero gs. Centipoid power level at four three zero g’s. Total enemy G-Power: eight zero zero gs.”

Only 300g’s over Helios. Well, he’d give it to this girl - that wasn’t bad given how weak both of her Bakugan were. But he’d show her _real_ power.

“Ability activate! Power Merge.”

Centipoid and Reaper glowed. And then that glow moved, encircling Helios with it until he looked almost Darkus himself.

“Helios up two zero zero gs. Total enemy power level at six zero zero gs. Helios leads by one zero zero g’s.”

Excellent. 

Helios leaped across the battlefield, catching Reaper by his good horn. The bakugan struggled, of course, but it was hard to engage the scythe at such close range. Centipoid lunged from behind. Helios turned, and threw Reaper straight into the piercing teeth.

Their removal from the battlefield lit Helios up in purple, before he too returned to his brawler.

“So, want to give up?”She had no more answers to Helios, did she? Getting both her bakugan out only just put her over him as it was.

“Never!”

Aha. Never? It was far too soon for that.

“Go, Helios!”

It wasn’t the bug this time, but Reaper. Interesting. Had her friends’ escape hampered her battle plans? Or was she merely hoping to keep him from guessing at her strategies? Well, too bad for her - it didn’t matter what her strategy was when he was simply stronger.

“Ability activate! Reaper of the Chaos!”

Dark clouds gathered to strengthen the darkus bakugan. Helios and Spectra watched the theatrics impassively. It barely put Reaper near Helios, after all. Reaper swung. Helios caught the blade before it struck him and the two were caught for a moment in a freeze-frame of perfect surprise. 

But then Reaper ripped the scythe from Helios’ grip and the moment was gone.

“Helios” Spectra inserted a card into his gauntlet, and Helios’ jaws went wild with fire.

“Nova blast!” It was difficult to speak through the torrent of fire, but Helios did it anyway. Just because he could.

“Double Dimension! Activate!”

The fire fizzled into harmless embers as Reaper twirled his scythe. The ability had been nullified. Hmph. Like that was Spectra’s only trick.

“Gate card open! Character card!”

A picture of Helios appeared on the ground, and the dragon himself roared a mighty roar as his attack power doubled. Reaper had nothing on him now!

“Dimension Four! Activate!”

Another nullifying ability?! Absurd! Who built a strategy like this around a bakugan like _that?_ It was so weak! Maybe if he’d been like Helios, with at least 300 more gs, it would have been passable, but this? It was just pointlessly extending the game!

Helios’ claw came down heavily on Reaper, and his body finally gave up, returning to Alice as a streak of purple. And then it was Alice’s turn to set a gate card. She seemed unfazed by the fact she was losing the game which was… Interesting. Those last few cards of hers must be really good.

Helios went in again - no point troubling himself with inferior bakugan when he had Helios - and Spectra waited. His opponent had to do something or lose, so the ball was in her court. She threw in Centipoid. Interesting - Reaper had the higher power. Just about.

“Gate card open! Character card!”

Ha! Doubling Centipoid’s attack! So that’s why she threw it in. Not that a mere 660g’s was anything to be worried about.

“Time to end it Helios. Ability activate! General Quasar!”

Helios breathed in. A pause. Helios spat a great twisting flame, engulfing not only Centipoid, but half the battlefield, leaving it a smoking wreck. He grinned, satisfied, and returned to his master.

Just over the shouts of the crowd, Spectra heard his opponent.

“Centipoid!”

Ah, that was true. He’d beaten it by at least 500gs, so now it was his. He picked it up. He’d decide what to do with it later. For now, he muttered into a device:

“Have her taken to my ship.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 2020 y'all, and it's almost November! So you know what that means!!

When Alice woke up, she couldn’t remember anything. Where was she? This wasn’t her house. The bed was too hard and there were no bedsheets and… And… Ah. That was right. She’d been captured. It was still hazy but… There it was. So, now she was… Probably in some cell somewhere. She looked down. They’d taken her clothes. Now she was dressed in some drab prison jumpsuit, which naturally had no pockets. Too much to hope that they’d leave her with her things, huh?

“You’re finally awake.”

Unfortunately, she knew that voice. Spectra. Alice crossed her arms.

“Now now, you don’t have to be so unfriendly,” Spectra’s manner was a distortion of friendliness. She could almost taste the sarcasm in the air, “I’m happy to take you home once you tell me where you got those bakugan from.”

Yeah right. If she gave him what he wanted, she’d get thrown in some hole somewhere and forgotten about. At best. That information was all that was keeping her around. She just had to keep going until she found some way of getting out of it. Hopefully Julie and Runo would be waiting for her. Hopefully they weren’t going to charge in and get captured themselves.

Spectra stood there in silence, just as Alice did. Staring. Eventually, he half-turned.

“We’ll see if you still think that when I come back.”

He walked out, but it wasn’t until the echo of his footsteps died away completely that Alice let the breath out. The breath she didn’t know she was holding. She walked back to her ‘bed’, which she now realised was just a ledge sticking out from the wall, covered with some spongey fabric she didn’t recognise. It didn’t matter, not really. There wasn’t much else to think about though - there was only a bed and a toilet and a sink in her cell. Plus a whole open face barred by what Alice could only assume were lasers. Otherwise, it was pretty empty, and pretty impenetrable.

So, she had quite the problem.

When Reaper woke up, he wasn’t expecting to be in a cell. And not in ball-form. And not with his arms bound with something that looked like electricity but felt more like steel cables. Rrrgh. He pulled, but couldn’t even will a finger to twitch. What had that stupid human got him into now? He glanced around. Three of the four walls were just an expanse of boring metal, but the last wall was glass. Glass and… Was that a walkway? Were those humans? it was hard to tell, given the distance and the feeling in his head like he’d been rather viciously beaten very recently. Although he supposed he had.

There was a buzzing noise. Reaper glanced up. And then the pain flowed into his body through his arms, and ripped out of his mouth as a terrible scream.

“We can’t just _leave_ her! Who knows what they’re doing right now!” Runo threw her arms up, “They could be _torturing_ her!”

“If we just get captured then what good are we?” Julie was shouting too, but only because Runo was. The bakugan around them shifted nervously. Unsure what to say to the humans.

“But we can’t do _nothing!_” Runo flounced down onto the ground with a huff, “We can’t just leave her there.”

Julie sat on the ground next to her. Put an arm around her shoulders.

“We won’t.” Her voice was quiet, but determined. She wasn’t keen to leave her friend in the clutches of the enemy either - but at the same time she couldn’t let Runo run off just to keep Alice company, “We won’t.”

The night came cold after that. A chill wind blew through the ravine, and the girls were suddenly glad for the extra fabric they’d taken. What had at first only been a disguise was now a useful counter against the sudden winter.

The morning was still biting, but the heat of Vestroia’s suns warmed the ground, and everything seemed just a little less bad. And besides, there was something to look at on the horizon.

“It’s a van” Julie squinted, but the shape refused to resolve itself into anything other than a van.

“It can’t be!” Runo hadn’t seen any vehicles since coming to New Vestroia, let alone cars! It couldn’t be! And yet, the thing on the horizon seemed exactly that.

They waited. And waited. And yet the thing still seemed so far away. Perhaps it had stopped a few times, or perhaps it was simply further away than they had assumed. Or, perhaps time knew they were miserable and wanted to make it worse. Either way, Runo had soon had enough!

“I’m going to check that thing out!” She declared, preparing to throw Saurus.

Julie thought for a moment. It could be a trap. Could be someone who wanted to be in that city. But on the other hand, it could be people who’d help them. Could even be people they knew! At least two of them were definitely here, after all.

In the end, it was nothing Julie could reason that made her leave - it was that Runo was already off on Saurus’ shoulder.

By the time Hynoid had caught up to Saurus - which frankly had not been that long, but to Julie felt like an eternity of clinging on to fur for dear life - the ‘van’ was much closer. And indeed, it seemed it wasn’t a van after all. Or, at least not an Earth van. It was huge! The thing must have had at least two floors, and looked more like someone had strapped wheels to a building. Surely, whoever was in there, it couldn’t be Dan. Maybe… Maybe it was a prison bus here for Alice..? Maybe this was their chance?

Saurus and Hynoid slowed to a light walk and trot respectively. The thing wasn’t so far away now, and so they needed to be more careful. Admittedly, if it was hostile, it probably would have done something by now, but if Julie and Runo had learned anything, it was that things here simply didn’t work how they were used to.

The vehicle stopped, and so Runo and Julie did too. For a moment that seemed like an eternity, they stared at it, and whoever was in the vehicle stared at them. And then a familiar figure came tumbling out.

“Julie! Runo!” Dan waved his hands like a madman, as if there was anything hiding him from view in the barren desert, “How did you guys get here?”

Julie looked to Runo, and Runo looked to Julie. They both looked down from their towering mounts.

“Dan?!”

“I can’t believe you left without us!”

“Runo—“

“How could you?! You know we’d put our lives on the line for the Bakugan!”

“Runo, I—“

“They’re not just _your_ friends, Dan!”

“RUNO!”

Runo’s mouth snapped shut mid-sentence.

“I know! I’m sorry!” Dan looked away, unusually shy, “I didn’t want you guys getting hurt.”

“Oh… Dan…” The fire had gone out in Runo.

“What about you!? You… ” Julie paused, unsure of an appropriate descriptor, “You idiot.”

“I just… Didn’t want you guys to get hurt again…”

The girls both wanted desperately to be angry - Dan had done such a stupid thing after all - but seeing him like that, all deflated and without his usual energy, it was hard to hold on to any of it. He’d done it thinking about them.So they didn’t have to put themselves in danger again for the Bakugan’s sake.

It was… Difficult. It wasn’t like it undid the hurt they’d felt. They recalled their Bakugan, and with a moment’s trepidation, followed Dan inside the vehicle.

They were packed into a room that was by all accounts quite large, but the oppressive quiet seemed to press in from all sides. Dan had gone, and all the girls could hear was his muffled voice, as well as several strangers.They didn’t come in for a long time, and when they did, the one who seemed to be the leader - that was, the one at the front - she had bright orange hair, and was dressed in brown and white clothes that neither Runo nor Julie recognised the style of. A Vestal.

Mira sat down. Two more humans. Ace was pleased, as ever. And Baron had been locked in his room before he found out either ‘Master Runo’ or ‘Master Julie’ was here. Dan vouched for them, though. They were good, he said. Helped save the bakugan - and Vestroia - last time around. And indeed had been paired with Hammer Gorem and Blade Tigrerra - two of the last to lose to Spectra and the Vexos. So, they couldn’t be slouches.

“You might be wondering why Vestals would be interested in saving the Bakugan,” she began. That was the first question she’d needed an answer to after forming the Resistance after all, so it was the one she gave to people first, “We… We weren’t told that the Bakugan were alive. We assumed that this planet was populated only with dumb beasts. We… We were wrong.”

Her face contorted in contrition. There was also the fact, after all, that her people were historically colonisers (or at least as historically as Zenoheld’s rein), and this was but one in a long line of planets that they had invaded and populated. There had been resistance leaders before her - although none of them had been aided in quite the way she had. In fact, before the Bakugan and her people’s preoccupation with the game, they had been rounded up quite ruthlessly. She was lucky that Zenoheld humoured them so.

Not that the Vexos were any laughing matter, fighting with Bakugan or not. They’d use any trick to catch them, Mira knew.

“I don’t care about any of that,” The blue-haired human’s face was cold, “All I care about is that one of your people kidnapped my friend.”

Runo crossed her arms. None of this helped Alice, and the longer they distracted themselves with nonsense, the further away from being helped Alice got. All she cared about was whether or not these people would help. If not, she was quite happy to take Dan and Drago and _go_.

“Who?”

“Some creepy guy in a mask,” Runo wished she had her phone with her. Taking a photograph would have really helped, “He beat Alice in a tournament and then kidnapped her.”

Mira narrowed her eyes. Spectra had kidnapped their friend. The leader of the Vexos. The one that had beaten them all and taken so, so many Bakugan from them.

“We… We might be able to help…”

“What do you mean ‘We’, Mira?!”

A boy with blueish-grey hair burst into the room, eyes ablaze. He glowered at the two humans, apparently so angry he couldn’t stand still. Instead, he hopped from foot to foot and clenched and unclenched his fists.

“Ace, if this could be a lead on Spectra—“

“What do we care about _Spectra_?! We’re here to shut down the generator!”

“We can’t just ignore someone who needs our help.”

“They’re nothing to do with us! Who cares?!”

“Excuse you!” Runo stood up. Ace stopped hopping, “What sort of resistance are you that you’ll ignore someone in trouble?!”

Ace’s mouth opened and closed several times before he composed himself.

“If it could endanger our mission, then I’ll ignore it! If she was so weak as to get herself captured, why bother?!”

Julie and Mira made eye-contact, briefly. Smiled pained smiles. Each of them knew what their contender was like.

“She’s not weak buster!” Runo spat, “She was buying time to help us escape!”

“Then make good on that and _go home!_”

“Not without her! Who knows what they’re doing to her?!”

“Yeah well, those are the consequences aren’t they! She should have thought of that before playing the hero!”

The sound of flesh-striking-flesh. Ace stumbled backwards. Runo held up her fist threateningly.

“Don’t fool with me! If she was one of your people you’d rescue her in a heartbeat!”

Ace had nothing. His mouth worked and his eyes nearly bugged straight out of his head, and yet he couldn’t come up with one reason - not one single reason - that contended with a fist to the face and the perfectly correct assertion that he would rescue his own because… Well, of course he would. He was here because he believed in Mira and her cause, and it needed all of them to make it happen. It certainly did _not _need a new pair of humans. He stalked out of the room, growling.

“Yeah well, she’s not is she.”

Mira watched him go with a tired look. Like she’d watched this play out a million times. Although when she turned back to Runo and Julie - but especially Runo - that tired look was replaced, just a little, with one of quiet anticipation.

“Ace aside, I think we could really use you for the Resistance. _All_ of you.”

She rose, and opened the door. Turned back to the humans.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to Baron. He’ll be so excited.”

Julie trailed out of the room last. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this, still. Mira seemed nice, at least. This Ace person seemed like an ass. And Baron? Well, if he’d be excited to see them then surely that was a good thing?

An opening door.

“Master Runo? Master Julie?!”


End file.
